(Reuters) - North Korea fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back, officials in Seoul said, but the exercise appeared to be more saber-rattling from Pyongyang rather than the start of a military standoff.

The North had flagged its intentions to conduct the exercise in response to U.N. condemnation of last week's missile launches by Pyongyang and against what it says are threatening military drills in the South by U.S. forces.

Kerry and Netanyahu hold three-hour long meeting immediately upon secretary of state's arrivals.

The United States may release jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for dramatic Israli concessions - including a freeze in settlement construction and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners - as a means to salvaging the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians

Senior Palestinian officials said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had refused to discuss the Israeli proposals until Jerusalem agreed to carry out the fourth stage of the prisoner release - including the 14 Israeli Arabs jailed before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

My Comment: If stunts like this (and the release of Pollard would be a stunt) are deemed necessary for peace to occur .... then here is an easy prediction .... there will be no peace because there is no foundation for peace. We are now down to a peace process that is dependent on gestures and promises instead of a true commitment and desire for peace.

Médecins sans Frontières says lethal virus has broken out in areas hundreds of miles apart, while death toll passes 80

Guinea faces an Ebola epidemic on an unprecedented scale as it battles to contain confirmed cases now scattered across several locations that are far apart, the medical charity Médecins sans Frontières said.

The warning from an organisation used to tackling Ebola in central Africa came after Guinea's president appealed for calm as the number of deaths linked to an outbreak on the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone passed 80.

The outbreak of one of the world's most lethal infectious diseases has alarmed a number of governments with weak health systems, prompting Senegal to close its border with Guinea and other neighbours to restrict travel and cross-border exchanges.

(Reuters) - Ukraine has hit back strongly at Russian calls for it to federalise its state structure and make Russian an official state language, saying its proposals were aimed at the break-up of Ukraine.

In an unusually harsh statement issued late on Sunday in reaction to comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said he was making demands on Ukraine which Russia would never allow itself at home.

"Why does Russia not introduce federalism ... Why does it not give more powers to national regions of the (Russian) Federation .. Why does it not introduce state languages, other than Russian, including Ukrainian, which is spoken by millions of Russians?", it asked.

My Comment: I live in Canada (a federal system). I have lived in Switzerland (a federals system). And I have lived in Russia (a federal system). The Russian model has had problems, but the Swiss and Canadian models have functioned for years .... and even when faced with problems have always had the institutional structures and the flexibility to solve them. A federal system where regional autonomy is a solution for Ukraine .... but because of language and culture the Ukrainian nationalists who are now running the country are never going to accept that idea .... even with E.U. and U.S. pressure.

A tank is seen close to the Russian border near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday. Russia claims it has 'no intention' of invading eastern Ukraine, despite Western warnings over a military buildup on the border following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Reuters

Show Of Strength: Russia’s Freight Trains Full Of Tanks Roll Into Crimea – But At Least Troops Are Pulling Back From Eastern Border With Ukraine -- Daily Mail

* Residents film freight trains carrying military equipment into Crimea
* Russia says it is withdrawing forces from Rostov region near Ukraine
* Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev made surprise visit to Crime
* He pledged Russia will pour in resources to annexed peninsula to improve education, health care and local infrastructure

Residents in Crimea have captured on video Russia's military progression into the area.

As Russia's prime minister promised to pour funds into the newly annexed peninsula during a surprise visit to Crimea today, videos have been posted online showing trains loaded with Russian equipment travelling west towards the Crimean capital Simferopol.

The videos, posted earlier this month, appear to show tanks, vehicles and other military equipment as they are transported on flatbed freight trains.

Meanwhile, Russia is withdrawing a motorised infantry battalion from a region near Ukraine's eastern border, the Russian Defence Ministry was quoted as saying by state news agencies today.

The Philippines filed a legal case with the UN Sunday over contested islets, despite China's threats of retaliation for the campaign.

The Philippine government is refusing to yield in a territorial standoff with China. Braving threats of retaliation, Manila lodged its legal case with a United Nations tribunal on Sunday, challenging Beijing’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea and raising the stakes in a longstanding dispute.

Beijing immediately dismissed the move, saying it would refuse to take part in any arbitration by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Ambassador to France's residence in Paris, March 30, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool

John Kerry Returns To Middle East With Peace Talks Close To Crisis -- The Guardian

US trying to convince Palestinians to prolong talks beyond deadline and Israel to release fourth tranche of prisoners

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was flying back to the Middle East for the second time in a week on Monday as the latest round of peace negotiations with Israeli and Palestinian leaders appeared to have reached a make-or-break point.

Amid a flurry of intense diplomatic contacts in Jerusalem, state department officials announced that Kerry was flying to Tel Aviv from Paris and would arrive in the region on Monday evening.

According to the officials, Kerry spoke with leaders from both sides as well as with the White House before deciding to travel. "After consulting with his team, secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region," said the state department spokesperson Jen Psaki.

My Comment: Everyone in the Middle East knows what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is doing .... he is pushing the process but avoiding the hard core compromises and issues that need to be covered and addressed. Unfortunately .... there always comes a day when everyone must say yes or no for such talks to continue .... and that day is rapidly approaching.

Turkish military have returned fire to Syria in a tit-for-tat attack after a rocket and mortar shells hit a mosque near the border, injuring a Syrian woman.

The incident took place in the Yayladagi town, a Turkish province on the border with Syria, where clashes between Syrian troops and the Free Syrian Army intensified.

Three artillery shells fell in the Turkish countryside during battles between the rebel forces in Syria and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad for the control of the Armenian Christian village of Kasab.

A rocket hit the Haci Bilal mosque in central Yayladagi, which is sited across from a Syrian refugee camp. The mosque's wall partly collapsed injuring a 60-year-old Syrian refugee who was passing by.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan declared victory in local polls and said he would "enter the lair" of enemies who have accused him of corruption and leaked state secrets.

"They will pay for this," he said, addressing his supporters from a balcony of at the headquarters of the ruling AKP party.

Erdogan told thousands of cheering supporters that his enemies in politics and the state, whom he has labelled "traitors," "terrorists" and "an alliance of evil", would pay the price.

"We will enter their lair," he said. "They will be brought to account. How can you threaten national security?"

According to the Hurryiet newspaper, at 95% of the ballots cast, Erdogan's party wins 44% of the votes, while the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) gets 28%. In the elections participated 92% of the nearly 52 million voters.

Report: N. Korea Fires On South During North's Military Drills; South Responds -- CNN

(CNN) -- A day after raising the possibility of further nuclear tests, North Korea has engaged in provocative live-fire exercises near the South Korean maritime border, leading to an exchange of fire between the two neighbors.

Semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Monday that the North had begun the drill just after noon (local time). The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed that some North Korean ordnance landed in South Korean waters, and that the South responded with fire.

(Reuters) - Global warming poses a growing threat to the health, economic prospects, and food and water sources of billions of people, top scientists said in a report that urges swift action to counter the effects of carbon emissions.

The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the effects of warming are being felt everywhere, fuelling potential food shortages, natural disasters and raising the risk of wars.

"The world, in many cases, is ill-prepared for risks from a changing climate," the IPCC said on Monday, after the final text of the report was agreed.

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea on Monday by flying to the region and announcing plans to turn it into a special economic zone, defying Western demands to hand the region back to Ukraine.

The visit, hours after Russia held talks on Ukraine with the United States, is likely to anger Kiev and the West, which accuse president Vladimir Putin of illegally seizing the Black Sea peninsula after a March 16 referendum they say was a sham.

Shortly after landing in Crimea's main city of Simferopol with many members of his cabinet, Medvedev chaired a Russian government meeting attended by Crimean leaders and outlined moves to revive the region's struggling economy.

South Korea Exchanges Artillery With North Korea After Live-Fire Drill Ordered By Pyongyang Dropped Shells Over Border -- Daily Mail

* North Korea conducted live-fire drill at 12.15 (3.15am GMT), firing into disputed waters near a South Korean island
* Reclusive nation sent unusual 'warning fax' to South Korea before military practice, which alarmed officials
* When shots crossed border, South Korean military responded by firing back 300 rounds and scrambling F-15 jets
* Heated exchange happened during South's annual training with US, which North brands 'rehearsal for invasion'
* Residents of five border islands evacuated to shelters, in 2010 four islanders were killed by North Korea military
* Test-fire drills are normal for North Korea, but they usually don't issue warning ahead of time

South Korea has fired shells into North Korean waters after their rivals sent more than 100 rounds below the disputed sea boundary during a live-fire drill.

The heated artillery exchange was prompted by an unusual warning fax sent from the North to the South, informing them of their live-fire drill.

Though it is not unusual for the reclusive nation to practice at sea, South Korean officials were alarmed by the alert, which they claim 'indicates their hostile intention'.

It comes just days after Kim Jong Un's reclusive nation threatened to launch a 'new form' of nuclear power tests - and coincidentally during the annual South Korea-US military practice, which North Korea dubs a rehearsal for invasion.

It's difficult to determine, but a group of aviation enthusiasts say they caught a glimpse of a mystery aircraft earlier this month flying slowly across the Amarillo, Texas sky.

"We looked southwest and there they were," Steve Douglass, a journalist and member of the group, told FoxNews.com. "We thought they were B-2s, but when we studied our pictures, we ruled that out."

Douglass and his group, armed with cameras and binoculars, met on March 10 at the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. The airport is a perfect venue because it offers expansive views of Texas' big sky and a steady stream of military air traffic. On a good day, the group can see various military jets, and even the elusive F-22 Raptor.

It was a clear day, and the group was alerted to three aircraft flying across the southwest skies. Douglass estimated that the planes got within 20 miles of the group and they started taking pictures with their 300mm zoom cameras. They looked at the photos, and saw that one appeared to be a silver-grey B-2 bomber.

The newly-created Japanese anime icon who is wanted by Ukrainian national security service, Crimea's chief prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya, says her attractive looks have never hampered her judicial practice and are, well, deceitful.

Poklonskaya took the job, which many of her male colleagues feared to accept, just days before Crimea’s referendum on independence from Ukraine, stunning the world not only with her courage, but her beauty as well.

“In the 12 years I’ve spent working in Prosecutor General’s office, I’ve been dealing with organized crime and put many criminals in prison,” Poklonskaya said. “My looks have never been an obstacle – I hope they deceive my enemies.”

During her first press conference on the new position, the 34-year-old blonde didn’t hesitate to denounce the coup-imposed government in Kiev.

Top U.S. General Returns to Europe Early Due to Uncertainty Over Russia -- Time

The head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe was set to testify before Congress, but left Washington early because of “lack of transparency” about Russia's troop movements

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel cut short a top U.S. general’s trip to Washington, citing a “lack of transparency” about Russia’s troop movements on its border with Ukraine.

United States Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who is the head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, was scheduled to testify before Congress this week. He instead returned to Europe early, reports The Hill.

The Tiny Estonian Town That Could Spell the End Of NATO -- Michael Ben-Gad, The Week/The Conversation

Will Putin call NATO's bluff?

The Russian invasion and rapid absorption of the Crimean peninsula might seem like the spark ready to ignite a new Cold War. In fact, given the feeble Western response so far, the more likely outcome is not the division of Europe once more between NATO's Western alliance and a neo-Soviet Russia, but rather the fracturing and ultimate demise of NATO and the Western alliance itself.

Of course, no one expects the West to use military force to protect Ukrainian territory, despite the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Russia, the U.S., and the U.K. guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for its relinquishing the nuclear weapons that remained on its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet even the Russians now seem surprised, indeed somewhat amused, by how disunited and weak the Western response has been. So what comes next?

My Comment: How Russians are treated in Estonia has always made my blood boil. My uncle's dacha is south of Saint Petersburg and a few kilometers from the Estonian border .... and there are many in that part of Russia who have family and love ones in Estoinia .... and all of them know how Russians are being are treated as second class citizens (if even then). But fear not NATO .... I am very confident in saying that Russia is not going to seize a small Estonian town to force a NATO response that would essentially be a declaration of war.

All is not quiet on the Western Front, but the drumbeat of war along the long Ukraine-Russian border is nowhere near as loud as it sounds in Moscow.

According to dire warnings from U.S. military and intelligence officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin, fresh from his daring annexation of Ukraine’s strategic Crimean Peninsula, has concentrated tens of thousands of his forces on the border with Ukraine. Camouflaged and concealed to throw off U.S. spy satellites, the warnings say, the heavily armed combat troops and special operations forces are coiled and ready to spring across the border into restive regions of Eastern and Southern Ukraine such as Kharkov and Donetsk, where pro-Russian populations are eager to be annexed by Russia, just like Crimea.

Top Russian officials – including Putin himself – have denied any such troop concentrations near the Western border. One minor Ministry of Defense official, who didn’t want to be named because he wasn’t authorized to comment, told NBC News that there had been training exercises – war games – in the border region but, once ended, those troops and armor returned to their bases. “All of this international hype is completely unfounded,” he told us earlier in the week.

My Comment: OMG!!!!! NBC actually has a reporter who does what reporters should do .... investigate. In all fairness .... Jim Maceda is an excellent reporter .... and he did what I was hoping that a western reporter would do .... actually go to the border region and see if the Russians are mobilizing their military to launch an incursion into Ukraine. Not surprising ... he saw nothing .... but in all fairness .... the Ukraine - Russian border is long and the region is vast .... to cover all of it would take a long long long time and a lot of traveling (I should know .... I did it once but not on the Russian Ukraine border ..... I did the Volgograd/Stalingrad to Minsk route).

In closing .... after reading this news report I called my cousin who is in the reserves (Russia). He told me that there is a buildup but nowhere what the U.S. government/Ukraine government/Western press have been saying. He would not answer my question on how long would it take for the Russian military to build up sufficient force on the Ukraine border to launch a military incursion if Putin gives the order .... but Jim Maceda's estimate of a few days is probably accurate.

My Comment: As predicted .... these talks ended with no agreement. I will also make another prediction .... additional talks will also go nowhere. Russia is not going to abandon the Russian community in Crimea .... nor will they turn a blind eye to threats that have been directed at the Russian community in eastern Ukraine. John Kerry's call for a withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Crimea and an annulment of the referendum result that resulted in Crimea joining Russia is doomed before it was even presented.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.